US businesses speak high of Vietnam market

Catherine Mellor, Director Asia of the US Chamber of Commerce, said Vietnam is a “hot market” that US companies should boost investment and trade activities.

Mellor, speaker of the Vietnam Business Seminar which was held in Baltimore of Maryland state on July 14, assured Vietnam News Agency’s US-based reporter of US companies’ appreciation of Vietnam, which, she said, is a fast growing country having hard-working, smart working people and the government committed to facilitating trade development with the US.

At the Vietnam Business Seminar, which was sponsored by the US Chamber of Commerce and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and attended by about 40 US executives and nearly 30 VCCI member companies, Alexander W. Koff, Chairman of Whiteford, Taylor & Preston, LLP., said: “Vietnam is one of the fastest growing economies in Southeast Asia and is quickly becoming the place for American companies to invest.”

The US law firm chairman called on U.S. companies to enter Vietnam because “Vietnam has a young, educated population that speaks English. It has a stable political system.” He reaffirmed that Vietnam is a “dynamic place”. He added that since the normalisation of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1995, the US has become one of Vietnam ‘s biggest foreign investors and two-way trade with Vietnam recorded high increases.

Also at the seminar, Bill Burwell, a trade specialist at the U.S. Department of Commerce, highlighted Vietnam ‘s achievements in 2010, including becoming full member of Asia-Pacific Economic Partnership (TPP) negotiations; GDP per capita going from 189 USD in 1993 to 1,113 USD in 2010 and poverty rate falling from 58 percent in 1993 to 10.6 percent in 2010.

According to the specialist, US companies should boost investment and trade activities in Vietnam in various areas, including power generation, telecommunications equipment and services, oil and gas machinery and services, airport ground support equipment, environment and pollution control equipment and services, medical equipment, education and training, architecture and construction and engineering.

The US specialist recommended US companies to do business in Vietnam especially in the coming time as the Department of Commerce has listed Vietnam as one of six next-tier markets under the national export strategy along with Indonesia , South Africa , Saudi Arabica, Turkey and Colombia .

Talking with US and Vietnamese businessmen attending the Vietnam Business Seminar, Vietnam’s Ambassador to the U.S. Nguyen Quoc Cuong reaffirmed Vietnam’s facilitation of FDI for US investors by continuing to improve the macroeconomic situation, reviewing and adjusting investment and business related policies in order to comply with WTO commitments, and strengthening Vietnam’s FDI promotion activities in the US. – SGGP

Tags: invest in Vietnam, Vietnam FDI, Vietnam FDI 2011, Vietnam investment